Hi everyone,
This Blog will be written in French and English. French version will follow closely:)
I'm a young sound designer from Montreal, Qc, Canada, the capital of video games.
I was reading on a LinkedIn conversation that blogging is a great way to get jobs and to create a following of your work. I've decided to give it a shot, and hopefully, create an interesting concept out of it.
To be brief, my blog will be kind of an open window on my career progression. I will post videos of my work, with explanations on what I am doing, what I am working on at the moment and what's happening around these projects. I will always ask permission if I talk about co-workers and outsource projects, before posting anything. Also, I will insert a lot of links in pertinence with the subjects.
I hope you will enjoy this closer look to a video game composer's life, and that maybe this blog help people to find their way in today's industry.
To begin with, I want to explain a little more about my background, so people can relate their own stories to mine in a better way. Since I am beginning in the video game/music industry(around 3 years of composition), I had a lot of ups and downs, surely like several composers out there. I never knew what was coming in my way when I decided to apply for this music school named Musitechnic in 2008.
From the very start of my childhood, I always loved video games. Actually, not just love, it was a passion, a fascination of high degree. At the end of my secondary school, I knew that I wanted to be part of this industry...what I didn't know back then, was what to do, and how to do it.
What's interesting about the video game creation process is that it is the perfect blend between the different art styles of this world. You can become programmer, artist, concept artist, level designer, game designer, composer etc etc. there is so much possibilities and they are all interesting in their own way.
The problem, right now, in 2011, is that the industry is metamorphosing in something completely new. Like the music industry, CDs are slowly dying, and soon, with the new arrival of cloud gaming like OnLive and online networks like the Playstation Store, WiiWare and Xbox Live, the physical boxes with the little instruction manual will become something from the past. I think it is good; less pollution, and we really need...less pollution.
The ladder to climb in each department is a really long and though one...not in all cases, but must of them will require you a lot of determination, with a glimpse of patience.
For my part, I began with college programming classes, which I really didn't like. I went to the Campus Ubisoft open doors, and had the chance to visit all the different opportunities...but nothing was giving me butterflies in my stomach. I was kind of lost, because I wanted so badly to be part of a video game creation, but, none of the careers was interesting me.
Then, one day, I downloaded a trial of Fruity Loops, an audio software. Without knowing that I was, fascinated by this software in a weird way, it became fast enough a growing time killer. In fact, I bought my first keyboard only few weeks after. I say in a weird way, because I never was into music before that...I never played an instrument beside the flute in early school classes. While I was getting deeper in the non-sense of what I was doing on Fruity Loops, I heard about a cool software named Reason, which was literally a studio in a software.
It wasn't too long that I searched for a music school, a fast way to learn all the different music faces. Musitechnic, a one year duration scholarship, sounded really great, beside the price attached to it. I was ready to make sacrifices, I really wanted to learn fast about music, and to one day, compose for a video game.
January 2009, I was ready, with my AEC Diploma, to take on the world. I was ready to go apply for jobs, to begin my career! Finally, it was coming all together......if only I would have knew.
Lucky I was, I had an interview at Piccolo studios few weeks after my scholarship completion. And, at this very first important moment of my career, life punched me in the face! In resume, I was...practically, if not completely, nothing. What I mean is that beside the guys I saw in the studios who had like 5-15 years of experience, I understood that I wouldn't be able to work in a studio like this one, simply because I didn't have the knowledge to do so.
After this day, it was a slow fall to the hell. I was trying to find a job, to find something, but just couldn't do justice to what I wanted to represent. Plus, I was a really shy person, who had a lot of difficulty to integrate himself into groups. Even my family was against me career choices, they didn't believe that, someday, I would go somewhere with all this.
Thank you to have taken the time to read this. Will follow shortly with the real thing and keep the emotional stories for another day ;)
Dominic
No comments:
Post a Comment